August 20, 2024 // National

News Briefs: August 25, 2024

OSV NEWS

Notre Dame Alumni Shine at Paris Olympics

PARIS (OSV News) – University of Notre Dame 2018 national champion Jackie Young was among the contributors to the United States’ intense 67-66 win over France in the women’s basketball gold medal game on Sunday, August 11, that concluded the Summer Olympics in Paris. Young’s ability to make her presence felt on the court symbolically reflected the 17 former or current Notre Dame athletes who represented six countries in six sports at the Paris Olympics. Ultimately, eight of them collectively garnered 10 medals. Another former Notre Dame basketball great – Jewell Loyd, the top pick in the 2015 WNBA draft – also helped the U.S. women’s team earn its eighth consecutive gold medal. Lee Kiefer (class of 2017), current senior Chris Guiliano, and former soccer standout Korbin Albert earned Notre Dame-inspired gold medals in their respective sports – individual (foil event) and team fencing; 4×100-meter freestyle swimming; and women’s soccer. Nick Itkin, a 2022 Notre Dame graduate, placed third in fencing foil. Representing Hungary, current junior fencer Eszter Muhari, earned a bronze in the men’s fencing epee event. Yared Nuguse, a 2021 Notre Dame graduate, helped the men’s track and field team’s 1,500-meter relay finish third.

Supreme Knight to Men: ‘Days of Easy Faith Are Over’

QUEBEC CITY (OSV News) – The “days of easy faith are over,” and a “new generation of Catholic men” are needed in the Church, said the head of a global Catholic men’s society at its annual gathering. Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly of the Knights of Columbus addressed more than 2,500 fellow Knights – along with their families, special guests, and close to 60 bishops and cardinals from around the world, including Bishop Rhoades – at the fraternal organization’s 142nd Supreme Convention, held August 6-8 in Quebec City. Founded in 1882 by Connecticut parish priest Blessed Michael McGivney, the Knights of Columbus now count more than 2.1 million members in more than 16,800 local councils around the globe. In 2023, Knights donated more than 47 million service hours and more than $190 million to those in need. Kelly said the Knights’ commitment to both concrete charitable action and deep spiritual formation, all centered in the Eucharist, offers an energizing hope to our troubled times. “This is our call, to be Knights of the Eucharist, to serve Our Lord in all we do,” he said.

New Jersey Diocese, Priests Sue Regarding Religious Worker Visa Change

NEWARK, New Jersey (OSV News) – A New Jersey diocese and several priests are suing the federal government regarding a rule change in religious worker visas. The Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey, and five of its diocesan priests filed the lawsuit on Thursday, August 8, in the U.S. District Court in Newark. Four of the priests are citizens of the Philippines, while a fifth priest is a Colombian national. At issue is what the diocese’s legal counsel described in an August 16 statement as an unlawful and unconstitutional alteration of how visa availability is calculated for certain noncitizens, which creates “profound immigration delays for noncitizen religious workers.” The diocese said in its lawsuit the federal government has placed the priests in the position of having to “count the days until they have no lawful choice but to abandon their congregations” in the United States. “Our Catholic communities rely on our international clergy to shepherd our flocks and nourish their spiritual journey,” said Paterson Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney in an August 16 statement. “The State Department’s change to the regulations threatens our mission to serve our communities.”

Pope: Eucharist Satisfies Hunger for Hope, Truth, Salvation

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – When receiving the Eucharist, Catholics should respond with gratitude and awe that Jesus offers Himself as nourishment and salvation, Pope Francis said. Jesus “becomes true food and true drink,” the pope said. “Thank you, Lord Jesus! Let’s say, ‘Thank you, thank you’ with all our heart,” he told visitors and pilgrims who joined him in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, August 18, for the midday recitation of the Angelus prayer. In the day’s Gospel reading from St. John, Jesus tells the crowd that He is “the living bread that came down from heaven” and that whoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood will have eternal life. Some were surprised by Jesus’ words, and not in a good way, the pope said. But for Catholics, “the bread from heaven is a gift that exceeds all expectations.” More than the bread that human beings need to survive, the gift of Jesus in the Eucharist “satisfies the hunger for hope, the hunger for truth, and the hunger for salvation that we all feel not in our stomachs but in our hearts,” Pope Francis said. “Every one of us needs the Eucharist.”

New USCCB Secretariat Will Advocate to ‘Promote Human Dignity’

WASHINGTON, D.C. (OSV News) – Jill Rauh, the Executive Director of a newly created secretariat at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, pledged to support the work of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the USCCB’s domestic anti-poverty initiative, after some expressed concern about the future of that project following staff layoffs. Rauh oversees the work of the new Secretariat of Justice and Peace, which was announced on Tuesday, August 6. The new office will serve four bishops’ committees to advance the social mission of the Church through formation, policy analysis, advocacy, and outreach. In an interview, Rauh told OSV News that the secretariat will continue “advocating for just policies so that we can promote human dignity and flourishing.” The Secretariat of Justice and Peace will serve the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, the Committee on International Justice and Peace, the Committee for Religious Liberty (which Bishop Rhoades chairs), and the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism.

Review Board Chair: Goal for the Church is Zero Abuse

WASHINGTON, D.C. (OSV News) – James Bogner, the newly named head of the U.S. bishops’ consultative safe environment body, told OSV News he is bringing both his faith and his more than 35 years of law enforcement experience to the task of countering sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. A former high-level FBI special agent, Bogner was appointed to the National Review Board on Thursday, August 1, by Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, succeeding outgoing Chair Suzanne Healy, who recently completed her four-year term. “We can’t be satisfied with what we have done in the past or up to date here,” Bogner said. “We need to continue to address these issues (of sexual abuse and prevention).” A deep commitment to the Church sustains him, he said. “When you have a problem in any organization and it needs to be addressed, you have two choices: You either leave, or you stay to address the issue and work on the solution,” Bogner said.

On Assumption, Pope Entrusts War-Torn Countries to Mary’s Care

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Mary is not a “motionless wax statue,” but a disciple who wants to share the good news of Jesus with everyone and reaches out to help and comfort them, Pope Francis said in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday, Aug. 15, the feast of the Assumption, as he entrusted to Mary’s care the people around the world experiencing war. “To Mary, Queen of Peace, whom we contemplate today in the glory of paradise, I would like once again to entrust the anxieties and sorrows of the people in so many parts of the world who suffer from social tensions and wars. I am thinking particularly of the tormented Ukraine, the Middle East, Palestine, Israel, Sudan and Myanmar. May our Heavenly Mother obtain for all consolation and a future of serenity and concord,” the pope said.

Priests, acolytes and dock workers roll a 14-foot monstrance with the Eucharist along a dock to be loaded on a barge Aug. 14, 2024, for the start of Fête-Dieu du Mississippi in Baton Rouge, La. The second day of the two-day Eucharistic procession on the Mississippi was the Aug. 15 feast of the Assumption of Mary and ended in New Orleans. (OSV News photo/Jaymie Stuart Wolfe)